Irene of Montferrat

Irene of Montferrat (1274-1317) was the Empress-Consort of the Byzantine Empire with Andronicus II of Byzantium. The daughter of William VII of Montferrat and Beatrice of Castile, Marchioness of Montferrat, she went on to marry her distant cousin Andronicus, and one of her sons would become Duke Theodore I of Montferrat. She left Constantinople in 1303 and settled in Thessaloniki, controlling the city until her 1317 death.